judgements were pronounced or declared. When any one of these died, a new member was elected by the priests from amongst the twenty-two septs or families inhabiting the Gau or district, and who included all the hereditary occupants of the soil. Afterwards, the selection was made by the monks, but always with the assent of the Graff and of the "Frohner". 'The seat of judgement, the king's seat, or "Königs-stuhl", was always established on the greensward; and we collect from the context, that the tribunal was also raised or appointed in the common fields of the Gau, for the purpose of deciding disputes relating to the land within its precinct. Such a "King's seat" was a plot sixteen feet in length, and sixteen feet in breadth; and when the ground was first consecrated, the Frohner dug a grave in the centre, into which each of the Free Echevins threw a handful of ashes, a coal, and a tile. If any doubt arose whether a place of judgement had been duly hallowed, the Judges sought for the tokens. If they were not found, then all the judgements which had been given became null and void. It was also of the very essence of the court, that it should be held beneath the sky, and by the light of the sun. All the ancient Teutonic judicial assemblies were held in the open air; but some relics of solar worship may, perhaps, be traced in the usage and in the language of this tribunal. The forms adopted in the Free Field Court also betray a singular affinity to the doctrines of the British Bards respecting their Gorseddau, or Conventions, which were "always held in the open air, in the eye of the light, and in face of the sun ".1

'When a criminal was to be judged, or a cause to be decided, the Graff and the Free Echevins assembled around the "König-stuhl"; and the Frohner", having proclaimed silence, opened the proceedings by reciting the following rimes:

According to law, and without delay,

If I, your knave,

Who judgement crave,

With your good grace,

Upon the King's seat this seat may place."

'To this address the Graff replied:

"While the sun shines with even light
Upon masters and knaves, I shall declare
The law of might, according to right.
Place the king's seat true and square;
Let even measure, for justice' sake,
Be given in sight of God and man,

That the plaintiff his complaint may make,
And the defendant answer,-if he can."

1 Owen Pugh's Elegies of Lewarch Hen, Pref. p. 46. The place of these meetings was set apart by forming a circle of stones round the Maen Gorsedd, or Stone of the Gorsedd.

In conformity to this permission, the "Frohner" placed the seat of judgement in the middle of the plot, and then he spake for the second time:

"Sir Graff, Master brave,

I remind you of your honour, here,
And moreover that I am your knave;
Tell me, therefore, for law sincere,
If these mete-wands are even and sure,
Fit for the rich and fit for the poor,
Both to measure land and condition;

Tell me as you would eschew perdition."

'And so speaking, he laid the mete-wand on the ground. The Graff then began to try the measure, by placing his right foot against the wand, and he was followed by the other Free Echevins in rank and order, according to seniority. The length of the mete-wand being thus proved, the Frohner spake for the third time:

"Sir Graff, I ask by permission,

If I with your mete-wand may mete
Openly, and without displeasure,
Here the king's free judgement seat."

And the Graff replied:

"I permit right,

And I forbid wrong,

Under the pains and penalties

That to the old known laws belong."

'Now was the time of measuring the mystic plot; it was measured by the mete-wand along and athwart, and when the dimensions were found to be true, the Graff placed himself in the seat of judgement, and gave the charge to the assembled Free Echevins, warning them to pronounce judgement, according to right and justice.

"On this day, with common consent,

And under the clear firmament,

A free field court is established here

In the open eye of day;

Enter soberly, ye who may.

The seat in its place is pight,

The mete-wand is found to be right;

Declare your judgements without delay:

And let the doom be truly given,

Whilst yet the Sun shines bright in heaven."

Judgement was given by the Free Echevins according to plurality of voices.'

After observing that the author of Anne of Geierstein had, by what he calls a very excusable poetical licence', transferred something of these judicial rimes from the Free

ld Court of the Abbey of Corbey, to the Free Vehmic

Tribunals of Westphalia, Mr. Palgrave proceeds to correct many vulgar errors, in which the novel he remarks on no doubt had shared, with respect to the actual constitution of those last-named courts. "The protocols of their proceedings,' he says, 'do not altogether realize the popular idea of their terrors and tyranny.' It may be allowed to me to question whether the mere protocols of such tribunals are quite enough to annul all the import of tradition respecting them; but in the following details there is no doubt much that will instruct the antiquarian, as well as amuse the popular reader.

'The court,' says Mr. Palgrave, was held with known and notorious publicity beneath the " eye of light"; and the sentences, though speedy and severe, were founded upon a regular system of established jurispru dence, not so strange, even to England, as it may at first sight appear.

'Westphalia, according to its ancient constitution, was divided into districts called "Freygraffschafften", each of which usually contained one, and sometimes many, Vehmic tribunals, whose boundaries were accurately defined. The right of the "Stuhlherr", or Lord, was of a feudal nature, and could be transferred by the ordinary modes of alienation; and if the Lord did not choose to act in his own person, he nominated a Freigraff" to execute the office in his stead. The court itself was composed of Freyschöppfen", Scabini, or Echevins, nominated by the Graff, and who were divided into two classes: the ordinary, and the "Wissenden" or "Witan", who were admitted under a strict and singular bond of secrecy.

The initiation of these, the participators in all the mysteries of the tribunal, could only take place upon the “red earth", or within the limits of the ancient Duchy of Westphalia. Bareheaded and ungirt, the candidate is conducted before the dread tribunal. He is interrogated as to his qualifications, or rather as to the absence of any disqualification. He must be free born, a Teuton, and clear of any accusation cognizable by the tribunal of which he is to become a member.-If the answers are satisfactory, he then takes the oath, swearing by the Holy Law, that he will conceal the secrets of the Holy Vehme from wife and child-from father and mother-from sister and brother-from fire and water-from every creature upon which the sun shines, or upon which the rain falls—' from every being between earth and heaven.

'Another clause relates to his active duties. He further swears, that he will " say forth" to the tribunal all crimes or offences which fall beneath the secret ban of the emperor, which he knows to be true, or which he has heard from trustworthy report: and that he will not forbear to do so, for love nor for loathing, for gold nor for silver nor precious stones.-This oath being imposed upon him, the new Freischöpff was then entrusted with the secrets of the Vehmic tribunal. He received the password, by which he was to know his fellows, and the grip or sign by which they recognized each other in silence; and he was warned of the terrible punishment awaiting the perjured brother.-If he discloses

the secrets of the court, he is to expect that he will be suddenly seized by the ministers of vengeance. His eyes are bound, he is cast down on the soil, his tongue is torn out through the back of his neck—and he is then to be hanged seven times higher than any other criminal. And whether restrained by the fear of punishment, or by the stronger ties of mystery, no instance was ever known of any violation of the secrets of the tribunal. 'Thus connected by an invisible bond, the members of the "Holy Vehme became extremely numerous. In the fourteenth century, the league contained upwards of one hundred thousand members. Persons of every rank sought to be associated to this powerful community, and to participate in the immunities which the brethren possessed. Princes were eager to allow their ministers to become the members of this mysterious and holy alliance; and the cities of the Empire were equally anxious to enrol their magistrates in the Vehmic union.

"The supreme government of the Vehmic tribunals was vested in the great or general Chapter, composed of the Freegraves and all the other initiated members, high and low. Over this assembly the emperor might preside in person, but more usually by his deputy, the Stadtholder of the ancient Duchy of Westphalia; an office which, after the fall of Henry the Lion, Duke of Brunswick, was annexed to the Archbishopric of Cologne.

'Before the general Chapter, all the members were liable to account for their acts. And it appears that the Freegraves" reported the proceedings which had taken place within their jurisdictions in the course of the year. Unworthy members were expelled, or sustained a severe punishment. Statutes, or "Reformations", as they were called, were here enacted for the regulation of the courts, and the amendment of any abuses; and new and unforeseen cases, for which the existing laws did not provide a remedy, received their determination in the Vehmic Parliament.

'As the Echevins were of two classes, uninitiated and initiated, so the Vehmic Courts had also a twofold character; the "Offenbare Ding" was an Open Court or Folkmoot; but the "Heimliche Acht" was the far-famed Secret Tribunal.

66

"The first was held three times in each year. According to the ancient Teutonic usage, it usually assembled on Tuesday, anciently called Dingstag", or court-day, as well as Dienstag", or serving-day, the first open or working-day after the two great weekly festivals of Sun-day and Moon-day. Here all the householders of the district, whether free or bond, attended as suitors. The "Offenbare Ding" exercised a civil jurisdiction and in this Folkmoot appeared any complainant or appellant who sought to obtain the aid of the Vehmic tribunal, in those cases when it did not possess that summary jurisdiction from which it has obtained such fearful celebrity. Here also the suitors of the district made presentments or "wroge", as they are termed, of any offences committed within their knowledge, and which were to be punished by the Graff and Echevins.

:

'The criminal jurisdiction of the Vehmic tribunal took the widest range. The "Vehme" could punish mere slander and contumely. Any violation of the Ten Commandments was to be restrained by the Echevins. Secret crimes, not to be proved by the ordinary testimony

of witnesses, such as magic, witchcraft, and poison, were particularly to be restrained by the Vehmic judges; and they sometimes designated their jurisdiction as comprehending every offence against the honour of man or the precepts of religion. Such a definition, if definition it can be called, evidently allowed them to bring every action of which an individual might complain, within the scope of their tribunals. The forcible usurpation of land became an offence against the "Vehme". And if the property of a humble individual was occupied by the proud Burghers of the Hanse, the power of the defendants might afford a reasonable excuse for the interference of the Vehmic power.

The Echevins, as conservators of the Ban of the Empire, were bound to make constant circuits within their districts, by night and by day. If they could apprehend a thief, a murderer, or the perpetrator of any other heinous crime in possession of the "mainour", or in the very act—or if his own mouth confessed the deed, they hung him upon the next tree. But to render this execution legal, the following requisites were necessary: fresh suit, or the apprehension and execution of the offender before daybreak or nightfall; the visible evidence of the crime; and, lastly, that three Echevins, at least, should seize the offender, testify against him, and judge of the recent deed.

"If, without any certain accuser, and without the indication of crime, an individual was strongly and vehemently suspected; or when the nature of the offence was such as that its proof could only rest upon opinion and presumption, the offender then became subject to what the German jurists term the inquisitorial proceeding; it became the duty of the Echevin to denounce the "Leumund", or manifest evil fame, to the secret tribunal. If the Echevins and the Freygraff were satisfied with the presentment, either from their own knowledge, or from the information of their compeer, the offender was said to be "verfä mbt "-his life was forfeited; and wherever he was found by the brethren of the tribunal, they executed him without the slightest delay or mercy. An offender who had escaped from the Echevins was liable to the same punishment; and such also was the doom of the party who, after having been summoned pursuant to an appeal preferred in open court, made default in appearing. But one of the "Wissenden" was in no respect liable to the summary process, or to the inquisitorial proceeding, unless he had revealed the secrets of the court. He was presumed to be a true man; and if accused upon vehement suspicion, or "Leumund", the same presumption or evil repute, which was fatal to the uninitiated, might be entirely rebutted by the compurgatory oath of the free Echevin. If a party accused by appeal did not shun investigation, he appeared in the open court and defended himself according to the ordinary rules of law. If he absconded, or if the evidence or presumptions were against him, the accusation then came before the judges of the Secret Court, who pronounced the doom. The accusatorial process, as it was termed, was also, in many cases, brought in the first instance before the "Heimliche Acht". Proceeding upon the examination of witnesses, it possessed no peculiar character, and its forms were those of the ordinary courts of justice. It was only in this manner that one of the "Wissenden", or Witan, could be tried; and the privilege of being exempted from the summary process, or from the effects of the "Leumund", appears to have been one of the reasons